NITDA has inaugurated a taskforce to implement Nigeria’s Sovereign Cloud Initiative, aimed at strengthening digital sovereignty, attracting investment, creating jobs and retaining technology talent.
Speaking in Abuja, NITDA Director-General Kashifu Inuwa said the initiative could transform sectors including education, finance, healthcare, agriculture and manufacturing.
He said the taskforce would prioritise compliance with the Central Bank of Nigeria’s January 1 deadline for financial institutions.
Inuwa added “NITDA will also organise workshops, develop an end-to-end certification framework and launch a portal by October listing certified cloud providers, infrastructure providers, system integrators and aggregators”.
He stressed the need to monitor cloud infrastructure, keep sovereign data in Nigeria and ensure compliance with regulations, adding that the initiative would create jobs and help reduce the migration of technology professionals.
CBN Director of Payment System Policy, Rakiya Yusuf, said digital stability was essential to financial stability and pledged continued collaboration with NITDA and other stakeholders.
Medallion Data Centres CEO Ikechukwu Nnamani said the policy could attract foreign investment, reduce capital flight, create jobs, strengthen national security and improve digital services through lower latency.
NITDA’s Acting Director of Regulation and Compliance, Emmanuel Edet, said the taskforce marked the shift from developing cloud guidelines to implementing them, bringing regulators, government agencies and private-sector stakeholders together to advance Nigeria’s digital economy.
